PAC includes donors with county deals

Is it quid pro quo? County exec says no

Airport is hub for controversy

Before she became CEO of the Wayne County Airport Authority, Turkia Awada Mullin was one of Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano's top lieutenants, heading the county's economic development operation.

The controversy surrounding the Ficano administration began when it became public that Mullin had received a $200,000 severance payment after quitting her $200,000-a-year job at the county to become head of the airport authority, a job that pays $250,000 annually.

Mullin isn't Ficano's only tie to the airport that raises questions.

The Wayne County Airport Authority was created in 2002, a separate quasi-governmental agency with independent oversight of Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Ficano appoints four members of the seven-member board; the governor appoints two and the Wayne County Commission has one representative. Some of Ficano's appointments to the board also have monetary ties to his administration:

• Board chair is Renee Axt, president of RCP Associates. Axt is a founding member of the Wayne County Business Development Corp., a membership nonprofit that funds economic development-related activity that's not a core function of county government. The director of the nonprofit, a Wayne County employee -- formerly Mullin, during her tenure at the county -- can earn up to $75,000 as a performance bonus if the nonprofit's objectives are achieved.

• Charlie Williams, president and CEO of MPS Group Inc., a holding of Soave Enterprises. Williams recently earned about $420,000 for brokering the sale of a piece of land for a parking lot for a new downtown jail. Mullin, as the county's chief development officer, signed off on the $14 million deal. Williams voted to approve Mullin's hiring by the airport.

• Tim Taylor, Wayne County's former human resources director, co-signed Mullin's severance agreement. He retired this year with an annual pension of about $106,000, or 75 percent of his average final compensation, but continued to work for the county on contract at about 90 percent of his salary and also was offered a $10,000 contract with the airport.

The airport contract later was rescinded and, on Friday, Ficano said Taylor would no longer work for the county because of his involvement with Mullin's severance.

Also, Southfield-based Trustinus LLC, the search firm that included Mullin on a short list of applicants, is owned by Jack Krasula, an investor in a racetrack in Wayne County.

The land for the racetrack was sold to Krasula for $1; the county made about $26 million in improvements to the land. The track was unsuccessful, in large part because the state reduced the amount it had budgeted for officials necessary for racing.
-- Nancy Kaffer

Leading donors

The top 10 Ficano PAC donors:

• Chaun Chang, CEO of Farmington Hills-based Peter Chang Enterprises,

$50,000. Peter Chang Enterprises does business as PCE Systems, according to state records. A review of Wayne County Commission meeting minutes shows that in 2008, PCE Systems received a three-year, $4.6 million contract to "create a direct contract provider system for the Wayne County Community Mental Health Agency."

• Robin Cole, CEO of Detroit-based ProCare Plus Inc., $18,250. In 2008, the commission extended a $10 million contract with ProCare by another $10 million. The company provides health care services to Wayne County residents.

$12,500. Ayad represented a group of 340 minority taxi drivers who sued the Wayne County

Airport Authority after the group lost a contract to provide service at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

• Ron Boji, president of the Lansing-based Boji Group,

$10,053. Boji is a developer who recently built the $25 million Inkster Marketplace. Wayne County's economic development team helped the Boji Group secure $750,000 necessary for the seven-acre, 92,500-square-foot project, according to Crain's archives. Boji is also a member of the Wayne County Business Development Corp., a membership nonprofit that pays a $75,000 bonus to its director, a Wayne County employee, for achieving business development objectives defined by the nonprofit.

• Nawal Hamadeh, founder of Dearborn-based Hamadeh Educational Services Inc., $10,000. The company operates three charter schools in Wayne County and one in Macomb County. Hamadeh has traveled with Ficano on trade missions to China.

• Alan Markovitz, strip club owner and author of Topless Prophet, The True Story of America's Most Successful Gentleman's Club Entrepreneur,

$6,800.

• Roberta Sanders, head of New Center Community Mental Health Service,

$6,800. In 2008, the organization received at least $259,000 in county contracts to provide mental health services to teens at Highland Park High School and through Covenant House.

• Thomas Vigliotti, president of Jefferson Land Inc., $6,800. In 2010, the commission extended a 2008 sole-source, three-year contract with Jefferson Land to provide archive space for the Wayne County Clerk archives division. The two-year, $464,802 extension increased the total value of the contract to $1.1 million.

Shisha, of West Bloomfield Township-based Strategic Business Partners,

$6,500. In 2008, the company received a sole-source, one-year contract worth $192,000 to provide tech support for the county corporation counsel's Prolaw system. Earlier this year, the commission approved a retroactive, three-year, sole-source contract with the company worth $120,000 to provide a project manager. The company also is developing countywide eGovernment applications.

In 2010, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano had the largest leadership political action committee in the state.

With $432,945 in donations during the election cycle, Ficano PAC contributed money to candidates in most key Wayne County races that year, funded by donations from some of the county's most influential businesspeople -- many of whom do business with the county, some to the tune of millions of dollars.

The donations are legal, but for Ficano, who is trying to quell the controversies of his administration, Ficano PAC could confirm what his sharpest critics allege: that his administration is rife with cronyism, with sweetheart deals for those on the inside.

Ficano says there's nothing amiss.

"We have thousands of contributors," he wrote in an email to Crain's, via County Communications Director Lynn Ingram.

"It's not uncommon for county contractors to contribute. We wouldn't turn them away simply because they are contractors. People believe in what we are doing and the process is completely transparent."

It's been an uncomfortable month for Ficano. He's enjoyed a relatively trouble-free tenure, any problems in his administration overshadowed by the more dramatic political theater of Detroit municipal government.

All that changed late last month, when news broke that his former chief development director, Turkia Awada Mullin, had received a $200,000 severance payment as she left her $200,000-plus job with the county to become CEO of the Wayne County Airport Authority, with a $250,000 annual salary. Wayne County has a $160 million budget deficit.

On Friday, Ficano suspended for 30 days without pay Deputy County Executive Azzam Elder and Corporation Counsel Mariann Talon for their role in authorizing the severance.

Ficano PAC is a leadership political action committee, which allows politicians to make contributions to other politicians. It's separate from the Robert A. Ficano Committee, the candidate committee that supports Ficano's campaigns. During the 2010 election cycle, the Robert A. Ficano Committee collected $1.7 million, according to Wayne County campaign finance filings.

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson's leadership PAC called OakPAC hasn't been a major player in recent years, with a balance of just $519, according to its most recent campaign filing. Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Anthony Morrocco's Anthony Morrocco Victory PAC had $232,470 in 2010.

Ficano PAC was the largest in the state -- in part, said Rich Robinson of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, because term limits put statewide fundraisers like former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, former state Speaker of the House Andy Dillon and former state Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop out of the running.

But with that $432,945 in contributions in 2010, Ficano PAC is a sizeable fund that has spread its money widely, donating to almost every significant race in Wayne County in the past several years.

In 2010, the PAC donated to candidates in city council elections in Dearborn, Dearborn Heights and Downriver communities, to state House and Senate races, to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Virg Bernero and to Wayne County Commission candidates.

The top 2010 contributor to Ficano PAC was Chaun Chang, CEO of Farmington Hills-based Peter Chang Enterprises, who donated $50,000. The Wayne County Commission voted to approve a $4.6 million contract with Chang, which does business as PCE Systems, to create a medical records system. (See box, this page.)

Another donor to Ficano PAC was Thomas Vigliotti, the head of Detroit-based Jefferson Land. Vigliotti donated $6,800. In 2010, the commission extended a contract for 77,000 square feet of storage space for the Wayne County Clerk's Archives Division to a total five-year value of $1.1 million.

A Crain's analysis indicates that the contract seems to have been a good deal for the county, averaging $3 a square foot for the space, which, according to CoStar Group Inc., is below the average price for Detroit office space and on par with the cost of industrial space in the city.

Robin Cole, head of Detroit-based ProCare Plus, donated $18,250 in 2010. ProCare Plus has a $20 million contract to provide health care services to Wayne County residents.

"A public ethic is supposed to be government working for its citizens," Robinson said. "You don't want government procuring service on the basis of kickbacks or quid pro quo. ... When it appears to be individuals benefitting individuals, I think people are rightfully cynical about government."

Still, Robinson acknowledged, when a vendor with a multimillion contract donates $50,000, "I think that always looks bad to the citizen/taxpayer/voter. I don't know if there's a way people can look at those facts and circumstances and say, "This is great, this is the way it should be.' "

Leadership PACs aren't uncommon at the state level, Robinson said.

"Anybody who aspires to leadership has (one or) two or even three leadership PACs so they can support any of their caucus colleagues who are in a competitive race," he said, adding that multiple PACs can be used to dodge limits on donations and contributions.

And those donations tend to pay off, Robinson said.

"Whether it's reciprocity or just remembered, when it comes time for a leadership election" in the state House or Senate, "it is remembered," he said. "And I think it's the same theory (on the local level). You're demonstrating support and political love, and you expect reciprocity."

How Ficano's PAC might affect his long-term political future is uncertain. Much depends on how he handles the current controversy and whether a challenger emerges by 2014 -- or whether he's built too solid a base in Wayne County for a credible challenger to step forward.

But for Ficano to weather the storm politically unscathed, he's got to step up his game.

"He can't stonewall it," said Bill Ballenger, editor of the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics. "If it establishes a theme or a pattern that he doesn't put to rest, it's going to persist and cause him more problems rather than less.

"It really looks bad. Not just this particular appointment, but there's a pattern, apparently, here. ... (If) he's top-heavy with all sorts of cronies and hangers-on at a time of fiscal crisis and so forth, it doesn't look good, it looks very, very bad."

Though Ficano isn't up for re-election until 2014 -- he won his third term in 2010 -- a 2011 scandal with legs could be politically dangerous.

"The idea that some of these guys have that they can ride things out is misplaced," Ballenger said.

But Ficano says he's not worried now about re-election.

"That'll take care of itself later," he wrote in the email to Crain's.